Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 8: Perpetual Night

Everything is very bleak and dark – of course, such imagery is the bread and butter of Penny Dreadful. With Vanessa’s ominous voiceover we have the stage set of darkened and fog clouded streets, evil darkness, cloying poisons in the air and the night creatures rising up

Penny Dreadful is the undisputed master of gothic imagery.

Enter into this the one gloomy bright spot, with John Smith and his family, him making all these happy plans for the future while his eager son is ravaged by a cough, all those happy plans hollow before his inevitable demise

How very… Victorian; gloomy, tragic, desperately sad and sweet.

With Kaetenay, Malcolm and Ethan arriving from America they convene at Sir Malcolm’s house and, after a bit of fun with some vampires, they’re joined by Catriana and hunting skills: saving Ethan and teaching Malcolm the finer points of curing a vampire bite. And the foolishness of stubborn male pride

While Ethan decides to run off into the fog looking for Vanessa, the others are joined by Dr. Seward. She’s just had an unpleasant experience with Renfield who, in addition to being horrifying, also told her a lot about Dracula and tried to murder her, sure she wouldn’t fight back because she’s not a killer

That shows what he knows

Duly beaten and imprisoned in a straight jacket, he is now confined for Seward and Catriona (who have collectively become toweringly awesome in this show) to question.

Ethan is lured through the streets by a child vampire into an ambush. He tells Dracula repeatedly that he will rescue Vanessa while Dracula responds, equally repeatedly that Vanessa isn’t actually his prisoner, she’s there willingly. Ethan won’t hear this so Dracula casually flips him aside and leaves him to his minions

Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling Series) by Nalini Singh

The Psy, the main power of the world, have long embraced a policy of Silence. A policy which trains their children to feel no emotion. The icily emotionless Psy have maintained this policy for generations now, to such a degree that a Psy that feels is considered alien and broken

Sascha Duncan is broken. Daughter of one of the Psy council, a Cardinal Psy with no real power… she feels. She feels intensely and she’s finding it harder and harder to hide the fact

When she starts working with Lucas, alpha of the Changeling wereleopard clan looking for a serial killer, his interest pushes her emotional control to the very limit.

This is going to be a little bit of an odd book review. Way back before we even started Fangs for the Fantasy, when Renee and I were just discussing, debating and mocking the odd book when we talked to each other, I read several books in the Psy-Changeling series and produced this somewhat abortive review. Then they never really appeared again. This is unfortunate because, not only is Nalini Singh a prominent author in this genre and also one I like a great deal, but it’s also her fault that we keep picking up paranormal romances.

If you’ve read Fangs for any length of time, we’ve had a rocky relationship with paranormal romance – generally not liking the tropes or structure of it. If you send us a book review request with a book that appears to be a paranormal romance, we will email you back that we’re generally not a huge fan of this genre so we may not be the best place

Yet we still read the genre because of Nalini Singh. Because I really loved this series – and I really liked her Guildhunter series and I wasn’t going to miss out on other potential awesomeness. So, yes it’s her fault.

And I do like this book a lot. I really love the world building. The whole concept of humanity, Changelings (wereanimals) and Psy (psychic people) is a fascinating one. I love that it’s set a little way in our future to have slight sci-fi themes, but not enough to be completely alien. I love how not only do we have our world with these different creatures, but that we also have the world itself to be dramatically changed. Things like the greater environmental protections brought in by the Changelings, the more extensive forests and influence that brings. While the Psy have shaped the cities and building and have a whole new information source based on their powers

The nature of the Psy powers and the imagination of the psynet are original and drew me in with the originality of it and the implication. It made this whole psychic side of the Psy a much more tangible element in their lives. They weren’t humans with shiny powers – they were entirely separate beings with entirely different ways of living because of this whole hidden world that they’re unaware of.

Preacher, Season 1, Episode 4, Monster Swamp

I’m pretty sure this random spooky school bus will become relevant. Anyway it serves as a backdrop for the sport of hunting down underwear clad sex workers with paint guns

This is taking the definition of gun fetish to a whole new level. Yeah your kink and all that – but this screams of serial killer training and waaay too many women and waaay too many sex workers are murdered for me not to think all these men need a sinkhole to jump into.

In the middle of this game one of the women, Laci, falls into a sink hole and dies. A tragedy that just about no-one cares about, it’s sad to say. No-one cares about the dead Laci and everyone is quick to want to return to their fun

Except for Tulip who is enraged. And while she holds the men in contempt she also throws some gross unnecessary shame at the women. This is doubly vexing because when Clive, an out and out arsehole who really needs beating with a stick, points out that the women are making way more money in the brothel than they would be working other menial jobs (we also have to remember this when the mayor makes a point about how the town is poor and dying). Gah I so hate agreeing with arseholes. And it would be nice, if Tulip was calling out all these arseholes, she wouldn’t throw shame at the sex workers.

At least she does decide to beat Clive with a stick. Except she gets the wrong room – and gets Cassidy instead, knocking him through a window and getting a shard into his neck. Naturally she assumes he’s dying and rushes him to hospital praying and begging for him to live… kissing him on the way with music suggests that Tulip and Cassidy may have just fallen in love? This could be terrible, awesome or terribly awesome or awesomely terrible.

When they arrive at the hospital Cassidy seeks his own cure – blood. And Tulip knows his secret. That should be fun.

Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 9: Battle of the Bastards

It’s the penultimate episode! That usually means we get an epic fight with all the extras and lots of little modal cities burning down!

Oh yes, it is epic

Starting with, shockingly, the least and most epic… in Meeren Daenerys returns home to be very Unimpressed with Tyrion and the state of her city.

She is all for wrath and vengeance while Tyrion counsels some restraint because wrath and vengeance is something of an unfortunate Targaryen habit. Instead she parlays with the representatives of the great masters. They present their case, full of condescension and threats to return everyone to slavery

She rebuts with dragons. Three of them. Against a fleet of wooden ships

And whatever argument they have against that she counters with Dorthraki. Lots of Dorthraki. MOOOOORE Dorthraki. ALLLLLL the Dorthraki

It’s a compelling argument. The two more awful great masters get murdered, the remaining is left to spread the tale and go and plot for the future (and yes, plotting is an issue. Look at Westerosi history – the Targaryens and their dragons were forced to treaty before by the Dornish who wouldn’t fighy in the open field. Daenerys and her Unsullied were frustrated by the hidden Sons of the Harpy. Guerrilla war has always been effective against Targaryen dragonfire).

I’m torn with Daenerys’s victory, which is something I’ve been touching on in recent episodes. A large part of me wants to cheer and yell “epic epic epic” because she does have some of the more epic scenes. It’s amazing, it’s shiny, and I love the dragons burning all the things and some nice burny victories.

But this is how Daenerys achieves power – woo-woo and dragons. Now it’s not all she has going for her – she’s extremely charismatic, unbelievably determined and damned inspirational. She’s also genuinely kind and compassionate – albeit patronising and condescending with it

But if there’s one thing her little Meeren adventure has taught is, it’s that she actually isn’t all that skilled in administration, diplomacy or politics. She receives people as a supplicant – even sycophant – or an enemy to crush. I do hope that we’re seeing a shit of this when Yara comes to treat with her (along with Tyrion thoroughly putting Theon in his place. I liked his point about height jokes and how everyone making them feels they’re being original. We see this a lot with insults of any marginalised person – there’s little originality in bigotry). Daenerys and Yara bond over the idea being the first queens of their people, as well as acknowledging they had ineffectual and even evil fathers. Tyrion remains dubious about any independent part of the 7 kingdoms, but I think given it’s a feudal system there are given levels of independence

The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode Two: Rising Run

After witnessing Valerie's plane get shot down, Chandler, Wolf and Sasha figure out pretty quickly that they need to get moving after being shot at.  Now that it has been confirmed that Peng is absolutely out to get them, they need to get out of the country quickly.  Sasha suggests that they meet up with her helicopter pilot friend Jesse. When Chandler, Wolf and Sasha arrive, they find Jesse passed out on her couch and when Sasha manages to wake her, Jesse punches Sasha for her trouble. Jesse believes that Sasha sold her out to Peng, forcing Tom in to intervene and state that his job is to distribute the cure and since Jesse's identity has already been compromised, Jesse might as well help out.

Back in St. Louis Michener is starting to feel the pressure and decides that his best course of action is to wait for Tom to get back.  Ostensibly, Michener feels that when Tom arrives back, he will be able to give them a better understanding of the situation on the ground, in reality, when time's get tough, Michener lets Tom do the leading and decision making. Unfortunately for Michener, the problems with the Nathan James are not his only concerns.  As to be expected with an undertaking of this size, there's a problem with the rationing.  Some areas of the country have excess and others simply don't have enough.  If that were not enough, what little government exists outside of St. Louis clearly resent the fact that Michener is now president. Members of Michener's own staff start rumbling about the need for an election and point out that while Michener was the last cabinet member alive, he doesn't have the cache of Tom or the now dead Rachel and is seen as the guy who was along for the ride.  Michener's immune status also works against him given that the immunes actively tried to kill off those who weren't.

On the Nathan James, Cameron Burk is in charge and is quick to admit that Ganderson was correct and that they should have notified Slattery sooner.  They have a very interesting dynamic because while Burk clearly outranks Ganderson, he turns to her for her thoughts even if doesn't seem to want to employ her suggestions.  Burk decides that though they were told to head into international waters that doesn't mean that they cannot track the ships they saw earlier.  Ganderson points out that this will put them out of the set up for redezvous position but Burk decides to go ahead anyway.

The captives from the Nathan James are led into a holding cell.  One of their group is injured and so they ask repeatedly for help but their requests fall on deaf ears.  The crew gathers together to try to figure where they are going based on the pitch of the ship, speed and direction.  Finally, they realise that they are sailing in a circle to purposefully confuse them.  The captors enter the cell and quickly remove the injured man.

After shooting their way through a checkpoint, Wolf, Chandler, Jesse and Sasha arrive at a nuclear power station to pick up the helicopter.  Naturally, nothing can run smoothly and they are forced to boost the helicopter even as Peng's troops arrive intent on murder.  Once again, Wolf, Jesse, Chandler and Sasha shoot their way out but have to deal with the fact that they have very limited fuel.

Back in St. Louis, Michener learns that Chandler's plane has failed to check in.  This is a big deal for Michener, who was waiting on Chandler to make a decision on how to proceed.  Michener doesn't get to commemorate Chandler for long because he gets a call from Cheng, who claims that Chandler's plane had mechanical trouble and crashed.  Cheng offers to send a recording of the pilots to prove the veracity of his claim and adds that Asia isn't very secure at this point.  Once Michener has the voices verified, he declares that Cheng is telling the truth though his advisers clearly don't agree with him.  In China, a pissed off Cheng demands that Chandler be found immediately stating that if Chandler manages to get in touch with American forces, his actions will set off a war between China and America.

Burke and Green are making their way to a rendezvous point with the Nathan James when they are shot at.  Burke is shot but they manage to take out 7 attackers.  Green tries to interrogate the one attacker they kept alive but he refuses to answer.  Their captive notices that Burke is bleeding and comments, "he won't like that" before promptly dying.  Burke and Green take a boat and speed toward the location they believe the Nathan James to be. They shoot off flares to alert the ship of their location.

Pride (Shifters #3) by Rachel Vincent

Faythe is on trial for infecting and killing her human boyfriend – trying to convince a council of Alphas that something happened when they don’t only not believe her - but don’t even believe that what she claims is even possible

But the trial cannot happen in solitude – a whole army of strays have moved into the area and have to be dealt with

I expected this book to be a lot worse than it was. Admittedly after the last two books, the book could literally be possessed by a serial killing ghost that tried to attack me with a claw hammer and it would still be a better book than I expected. Still, my low expectations meant I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

In this book, the misogynist Alphas questioned Faythe on whether or not she intended to marry and how many kids she’d have – and if she didn’t have any immediate plans she was simply useless to werecat society: because what’s the point of a werecat female who isn’t pushing out the young ‘uns? Honestly, I expected Faythe to grab Marc’s engagement ring, suddenly become pregnant and problem solved! So, kudos, Pride for not doing this

In fact, in general Pride wasn’t nearly as offensively awful as the previous books, not even close. Partly this is due to the complete lack of spicy South American werecats (and general POC. You wouldn’t even know Marc was Latino if you didn’t know from previous books). Normally I would complain about lack of POC, but like the lack of LGBTQ characters I find myself slightly grateful simply because it means we won’t have to endure he representation (though we do have a ridiculous moment where 3 people share a single bed and leave another empty because a) the 2 men won’t let the other share a bed with Faythe and b) two men sharing a bed is terribad icky.)

The main issues I have with this book is that it completely ignores the context of the books that have come before. Like we have Greg, Faythe’s father who is pretty much cast as the Good One in this book. He is the reasonable Alpha. He is the nice Alpha. And he’s just being terribly trapped by the Alpha council who is totally awful and old fashioned and misogynist.

The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode One: The Scott Effect

Michener is now installed in St. Louis as the president and seems to have a functional government on the go.  He makes an address to the American people about the state of their nation.  Ration cards featuring the now deceased Dr. Scott have been released to the public to ensure that everyone gets an equal share until they produce enough to meet demand.  Michener is far removed from the man Chandler rescued from Sean last season and finally looks as though he fits the job that he has been given.  I still say that it's time for an election.

As much as the American people are pulling together, there's trouble in other areas of the world.  After hearing that the virus has begun to mutate in Vietnam and that the big bad President Peng won't distribute the cure to the rest of Asia, Michener sends Tom on a diplomatic mission to make it clear that if Peng won't deliver the cure, the Americans will.

Here we go again with America saving the world and being worshiped as heroes. The Nathan James, now captained by Slattery is leaving Okinawa for Vietnam to distribute the cure. The crew of the Nathan James are viewed as heroes and there's going to be a party in their honour at a nightclub. While Chandler is in China playing the heavy and accusing Peng of not distributing the cure, the nightclub that the service members of the Nathan James are partying at gets attacked. Once the news reaches St. Louis, Chandler is ordered to leave China immediately and the Nathan James is ordered into international waters to await reinforcements, despite the fact that several members of their crew, including Slattery have been kidnapped.

On the plane home, Chandler makes the executive decision not to actually follows Michener's orders (no surprise there) and head into Vietnam on his own.  Chandler orders Valerie to wait until international water to let Michner know what he is doing. Well, at least he didn't just run off even if he did disobey direct orders.  Valerie takes off with the plane but isn't in the air long when she finally manages to decode some chatter that she has spent the episode trying to figure out.  Valerie orders the pilots to turn around and land but the plane explodes.

If you're paying attention, that means you realise that The Last Ship ended with the death of a prominent female character and began with the death of another.  This does not bode well for the role of women this season.  One of my long standing complaints with The Last Ship is its treatment of gender.  Female characters are routinely sidelined in order to trumpet the efforts of Chandler and occasionally Slattery.  Even the fight scene in the bar showed Slattery getting a few shots off before being overtaken and Garnett being quickly handled.  It's not an accident that it was Green and Burk who managed to escape capture.  The navy is a boys club but that doesn't mean that The Last Ship cannot have powerful women.  It's telling that when we were introduced to Shaw this episode that even as Chandler takes note of how tough, smart and independent she is that she is clearly being set up as his love interest.  I doubt anything substantial will come of Shaw's character beyond whatever relationship develops between her and Tom.

Outcast, Season 1, Episode 3: All Alone Now

This week we seem to be beginning a theme of exorcism-of-the-week, with a possessed ex-cop killing and raping his partner’s wife and being locked in the basement of a prison because all normal procedures apparently don’t apply. This being Outcast we have some brutally awful references to this rape

Rev Anderson grabs Kyle and they head off to do some exorcising

Can we point out, yet again, that Rev. Anderson’s exorcism is basically “the power of Christ does not one fecking thing!”. His exorcism play acting, his recitation, his cross, his oil and water do nothing to these demons (in fact, is demons even the right word here? We’re only working on Rev. Anderson’s narrative for this and he’s clearly not right on this). He was even willing to walk away and assume the possessed was a normal, evil man rather than a demon because his holy toys didn’t work. Even Luke, the current victim’s friend/partner played by “that guy whose name I can’t remember but was in x” (one of those actors who seems to be in everything in some capacity) focuses on Kyle who has the power to actually do something.

Even the current possessed taunts Rev Anderson that his touch does nothing – and it’s something that makes the Rev so bad tempered since he’s apparently given up his entire family (we even have a major freak out about losing a picture of his child suggesting he doesn’t have a lot of these pics or regular access to his kid) to fight demons when he doesn’t even have the power to do so. While Kyle, who isn’t even a believer, has his demon-hurting touch. The Rev is convinced that this is still god’s work – but I think a far more interesting twist which would fit the narrative is that Anderson’s religious context simply doesn’t apply. He’s throwing holy water at spirits or aliens or who knows what else. Or it’s a different religious context entirely. It’d be a fascinating twist on a rather tired exorcism trope.

During this the demon calls Kyle “outcast” and rightly guesses that he has no friends or family because everyone is made uncomfortable by his presence. Kyle wants answers from the demon far more than he wants to save a strange man’s soul – he wants answers and it to end so he can actually have a life and get his family back without demons dropping in like the worst uninvited in-law visits ever.

But in this case they decide that this demon is “here to stay” for whatever reason, and the guy unsaveable.

That leaves him in Luke’s care constantly pushing all his buttons until Luke near suffocates him. But only near.